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In the weeks leading up to the opening day of Summer Game Fest 2023, the excitement within the gaming community had become so high that it almost felt palpable. Since the previous PlayStation Showcase in May 2023 had disappointed most fans, many had started to hope that Geoff Keighley and his biggest midyear video game event would rectify Sony’s setback.
However, once opening day came around and the program went on as scheduled, a large number of viewers had started to realize that the games being shown were mostly made up of the same titles that had been announced in months prior. The only difference this time around was the revelation of a few, long-awaited release dates that really should have been given out beforehand.
As evidenced by this year’s Summer Game Fest roundup, most of the titles included in the list, such as Spider-Man 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and even Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, had all been revealed in previous showcases so the hype surrounding these entries had considerably died down since then. Not even the publishers’ inclusions of a few flashy gameplay trailers could redeem the opening day event’s lackluster quality, which is why many are now starting to look forward to the Xbox Games Showcase.
With both PlayStation and Summer Game Fest showcases largely underwhelming many within the community, the relatively low bar that’s been set means that Xbox won’t need to hit a home run just to steal the show. In fact, having a segment entirely dedicated to Starfield should already make it an even more interesting affair since we haven’t seen nor heard anything too detailed about the open-world space adventure.
Additionally, if the rumors of Fable being included in the show were to come true, then that would undoubtedly make the Microsoft event even more of a hit since information on the RPG remains scarce after initially being announced in 2020. Atlus’s accidental leaks also indicate that we’ll be getting a reveal of Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Tactica at some point, which would obviously just be the cherry on top if it does end up getting announced.
However, this massive opportunity that’s been set right in front of Xbox also inevitably comes with a few caveats. If the Microsoft gaming company somehow manages to bungle their upcoming showcase with an exhibit that’s even more lackluster, then the fickle gaming community may not let them live it down and their reputation would take a greater hit than it already has.
After all, the disastrous Redfall release is still fresh in everyone’s minds and another blunder right after would make them the laughingstock of the industry. Sadly, even the promise of further updates fixing this game’s current state hasn’t been enough to entice players to come back, which is highly indicative of how the player base currently views studios associated with the Microsoft gaming company.
Fortunately, Xbox executive Aaron Greenberg previously mentioned in a tweet that none of their “first party games in the show are full CG trailers,” meaning everything will either be “in-game footage, in-engine footage, or in-game footage with some cinematics.” This means that we should get an immediate idea of how the game will look and play based on the previews provided by the developers.
Greenberg also went on to cheekily confirm that there will be “no movie trailers” during the show so the entirety of the two-hour exhibit will be made up of various game reveals. Whether or not these will all be interesting, though, remains to be seen, but the executive’s bold statements so far is making it seem as if their showcase is set to blow the previous ones out of the water.
Of course, these are still merely promises that don’t indicate what the quality of the show is going to be, which means we’ll just have to wait and see until the day itself to find out. But with the bar already being set as low as possible, Xbox won’t even need to make one giant leap to overtake the competition because all they’ll need to do now is take one small step.
